# The Russian soldier in Manama

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Russian soldier in Manama," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-russian-soldier-in-manama/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The Russian soldier John Kiriakou says he met in Manama, Bahrain, who told him the Chechens were the only people on earth he was afraid of, a remark Kiriakou produced in a conversation about Chechnya's standing as a fighting nation.*

- **Where:** Manama, Bahrain
- **Who:** A Russian soldier
- **What he said:** The Chechens were the only people on earth he was afraid of
- **Kiriakou's first guess at the location:** Baghdad, corrected to Manama
- **Occasion of the telling:** A viewer question about Chechnya's leadership and succession

**The Russian soldier in Manama** is a brief encounter John Kiriakou recounted on the DeProgram programme in August 2025, at the close of a discussion about Chechnya prompted by a viewer's question about the disappearance of its leader from public view.[1]

## The conversation it arose in

The host had raised a claim from John Keegan's history of warfare that the Chechens are the most ferocious fighters on earth, *"completely indomitable, totally insane"*, and described the republic as a miniature North Korea inside the Russian Federation. Kiriakou's contribution was a piece of first-hand corroboration rather than an argument.[1]

## The encounter

Kiriakou's recollection of the place is not immediate. *"You know, I met a Russian soldier once. Where was I? Was it in Baghdad? Anyway, no, it wasn't in Baghdad. It was in Manama in Bahrain."*[1]

The substance is a single sentence: *"And he told me that the Chechens were the only people on earth that he was afraid of."*[1]

Kiriakou does not date the meeting, name the man or give his unit, and offers no assessment of his own about Chechen fighters.

## Manama

The city is one Kiriakou knows well. He was posted to the American embassy in [Bahrain](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting) in his late twenties, serving as its economic officer and its human rights officer, and has said he was twenty-nine when he arrived.[2]

It is the same posting that produced his account of finding [a listening device in his bedroom ceiling](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bug-in-the-bedroom), and of the intelligence chief [General Ian Henderson](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ian-henderson), whose name he says even the heir presumptive would not speak aloud.[3][4]

## See also

- [Bahrain Posting (1994–1996)](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bahrain-1994-1996-posting)
- [The Bug In The Bedroom](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-bug-in-the-bedroom)
- [Ian Henderson](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/ian-henderson)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-08-12), at 1:15:38. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE-XS8gvwiM&t=4538s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-08-12-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
2. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 35:32. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=2132s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
3. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 29:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=1785s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
4. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2025-09-04), at 36:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IPfeItwnb4&t=2194s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-09-04-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/

---

From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-russian-soldier-in-manama/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt